Chapter 398: Goodbye Hugo

He smiled at them before he looked up. Even though he couldn’t exactly see Aria properly since she was still sitting on his shoulders, he could feel her shifting.

Aria leaned over and looked down at his face upside down, only to end up giggling.

"Papa, you look funny," Aria giggled.

Adrian chuckled. "Yeah, very funny. But you look very, very adorable, my cute, adorable baby."

Aria just giggled happily and basically just playfully smacked her forehead against his forehead. It didn’t exactly hurt either.

"Do you want to go inside and grab some food?" Adrian asked.

Aria immediately nodded. "Yes! Food!"

She immediately raised her small hands up into the air in excitement instead of continuing to grab onto his head for balance.

Adrian immediately raised his own hands up to securely support her back just so that she didn’t accidentally fall backward off his shoulders.

"I want to eat a whole chicken!" Aria exclaimed happily.

Adrian just shook his head. He knew very well that she was just going to take a few small bites of the chicken and then immediately jump onto eating the other side dishes, leaving the massive leftovers basically entirely for him to finish.

He just chuckled. "Yeah, let’s go grab some food for you and for everyone else. And yes, I will buy you a whole chicken."

He walked through the heavy double doors of the restaurant, and the moment he walked inside with the girls, the staff immediately spotted him. Every single worker instantly stopped what they were doing and bowed deeply.

The celebrating commoners eating on the ground floor noticed the sudden shift in atmosphere. When they saw their Lord standing in the doorway, they all immediately stood up from their tables in respect. The loud, chaotic sound of multiple wooden chairs scraping against the stone floor at the exact same time echoed through the dining hall.

It just made Adrian feel a little weird and overly formal.

He just shook his head and casually waved his hand at the crowd to put them at ease.

"Please, just sit down and focus on your food," Adrian called out over the silence. "I’ll just mind my own business. Enjoy the holiday."

The crowd slowly sat back down, murmuring excitedly and shooting glances at him.

Adrian bypassed the crowded main floor and walked directly over to the stairs. He headed upwards, and the exact same formal reaction followed him on every single floor.

When he finally reached the exclusive fourth floor, the atmosphere was vastly different.

There was only one single group already sitting there at a large corner table, and it was none other than his five elite teenage knights.

Adrian saw them, grinned warmly, and walked over.

"How are you guys holding up?" Adrian asked, looking at them. "Did you recover from the last battle?"

Octavia immediately nodded respectfully. "Yes, my Lord. I just really wish that the battle had taken place at night, because I honestly felt really useless out there."

Adrian chuckled and waved his hand.

"Well, don’t worry about that at all," Adrian reassured her. "Even during the day when your blessing is dormant, you are still much stronger than the regular knights around you who are at the exact same rank. So you do not have to worry about stuff like that. Just focus on your daily training and keep getting stronger. If you ever need something, just come and talk to me, and I’ll give you what you want."

Octavia nodded gratefully.

Suddenly, Hugo stood up from his chair.

"Lord Adrian," Hugo said a little hesitantly. His voice was incredibly soft. Compared to the way he usually talked, which was really gruff and serious, this was incredibly quiet and nervous. It almost sounded like he was trying to confess to his high school crush.

Adrian raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, what is it, Hugo? Do you want more training facilities for your pain tolerance or something?"

"My Lord..." Hugo started nervously. "I would like to formally retire from the front line military."

Adrian’s eyes widened in surprise. "What do you mean? Why? Did something bad happen?"

"I’m not scared of the pain," Hugo clarified quickly. "But after the past few battles that I’ve survived on the front lines, I realized something important. I realized that my blessing can be much more useful at the back of the camps."

Hugo looked down at his large hands.

"I really like the feeling I get when I save people," Hugo said softly. "And I’ve personally seen multiple of our own people lose their lives on the field just because I was too busy fighting the enemy in the vanguard to reach them in time. If I was just stationed back there in the medical tents, ready to instantly heal them as they were brought in, a lot of good people could have been saved."

Hugo looked back up at Adrian, his eyes filled with lingering guilt.

"I feel incredibly guilty for that," Hugo confessed. "And I wish that I can be much more useful to Oresfall, and that my specific talents can be used for the better things."

Adrian thought about it for a few seconds.

He frowned a little bit, his eyes losing focus as he stared at the wooden table they were sitting at.

He nodded slowly. "Yeah. You do make a lot of sense, I guess."

’Well, I guess throwing him into the vanguard was a really dumb tactical move on my part,’ Adrian thought to himself. ’I mean, he’s not the hero. He doesn’t have that level of crazy, instantaneous area of effect healing like that Apostle did, and nor does he have the healing factor of the hero but I selfishly thought that maybe I could train him to be a combat replica of one. But he’s just a child... he shouldn’t be forced to endure that kind stuff if he doesn’t want to. And it’s not like he’s quitting for good... he wants to use his powers more effectively.’